Cry Effect 2
by Commander Klassen
Summary: What if Commander Shepard wore a nano-suit after cerberus rebuilt her instead of a hardsuit. This story uses a similar prologue as the CRY EFFECT 1 story, don't be confused. rated M for violence, and badassery.


AUTHORS NOTE: I am only doing the primary missions, arrival, LOTSB, and the SR1 crash site. I will do all of the loyalty missions, including kasumi's and zaeed's.

CryNet Systems manufactured a nanosuit for every member in every branch of the NATO, which later became the Systems Alliance, (due to the fact that not every member of NATO was near the north Atlantic) after the Manhattan incident. World war 3 occurred, lasting about 30 years. The world had never seen global peace in a long time. With the creation of the systems alliance parliament the nanosuits were then retired to nano-vaults (special powered vaults, so that the nanosuits' biological architecture wouldn't die) and over the years these nano-vaults' locations were lost, until Cerberus discovered General Michael Shepard's nano-vault on earth. -I may write a story about this later on.

The quote featured is Latin for 'learn as if you will live forever, live as if you'll die tomorrow'

**The Human Council Member**

"Commander, due to you and the Alliance Military's valiant efforts in the destruction of the geth flagship, we the council imbue you with the responsibilities of choosing the first human council member. Who do you choose?" Asked the Asari Council member.

"I choose Captain Anderson to lead Humanity through these trying times." Replied Shepard

"I'm the Human Ambassador on the Citadel! I deserve to be the Councilor." Steamed Udina

"That is one of the reasons why I didn't pick you." Calmly replied Shepard.

"What is the other reason why you picked me Commander?" Asked Captain Anderson.

"The second reason is that the Reapers are coming and we need a military-minded leader to guide us safely through this conflict." answered Shepard.

"There is no proof that these 'Reapers' even exist, Shepard aren't you taking this too far?" Asked the Turian Council member.

"I told you that they were real, when they attacked Feros, Noveria, your precious Prothean ruin on Therum, the Prothean Facility on Ilos, even when they attacked the Citadel, and nearly destroyed you, still you blame it on the Geth. I should have let you die at the hands of Sovereign, I don't know why I saved this good for nothing council." Shepard ranted before storming off.

"General, prepare your men, we are going after Shepard, through her species." Stated Harbinger, another Reaper.

With that five Collector Cruisers set off to various parts of the galaxy. One by one they navigated the treacherous accretion disc-the various ships, and debris orbiting the centre of the galaxy. Their IFF's quickly activating the Omega 4 relay, redirecting its corridor to locations around the galaxy. Their mission, to attract the attention of Shepard, and not the Alliance. They hit ships, and small terminus colonies, not the major colonies, but the ones with less than 100,000 people. To force the Alliance to realize that pirates and slavers were hitting their colonies. To follow through with the warnings of colonizing in the terminus is dangerous. That is the mission of the Collectors.

Ding! A new message from Admiral Hackett, to Commander Shepard, and Lieutenant Alenko, detailing their newest mission; patrol the Omega Nebula looking for geth. This notification arrived at Myrmidon Station, Cerberus' Central Command Location. The Illusive man then dispatched multiple Covert Ops vessels to the systems in the Omega Nebula. They were to track the SR1, and come to the assistance of any crew providing the Alliance fails to arrive.

_One month Later_

Shepard woke to the sound of her alarm clock ringing next to her bed, it was silenced via a quick right jab. Seconds later her omni-tool appeared, and buzzed; informing her of an incoming message. Shepard threw her comforter off, and the cold room temperature forced her to don a robe. she trudged toward her shower, and turned it as hot as it would go. Her robe slid off as she entered the steamy shower. two and half minutes later, you can thank the Alliance for that; the door to the shower opened. Shepard exited and strode purposefully, completely nude, to her wardrobe. Sliding on a pair of panties, she sat down on a chair and activated her personal computer. the message said.

_Commander Shepard, Lieutenant Alenko, _

_ The Council has authorized a clean up mission. you and the Normandy SR1 are to covertly patrol the Omega Nebula on the lookout for Geth incursions. Several civilian merchant ships have gone missing in the area. The SR1 is docked in 127 on Arcturus's military dock. This mission is classified TS codeword only._

_ Admiral Hackett-5th Fleet_

Shepard pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and placed a elastic on it. Glancing toward the kitchen, she saw the coffee maker was off, but her cup was in place. Shepard thought about it and acted, sending a small biotic throw towards the power switch. The throw included enough force to overcome the resistance of the toggle, the coffee maker powered up, and began to brew a nice strong Colombian blend, specially imported from Earth. Once her coffee was done, she walked over to the coffee maker and grabbed the insulated mug, and then she walked back over towards the bed. Shepard punched the lump of covers, "Kaidan get the fuck out of bed, were going to Omega."

"Ugh, let me sleep Cali, we were up until 0400, its only been six hours." Kaidan moaned while glancing at the clock.

"Yes, but the four hours leading up to that, was that not the best sex you've ever had?" Shepard asked, with a grin on her face.

"Yeah, I guess, although the sex before Ilos was pretty amazing too." Kaidan replied, flipping the entire bundle of covers onto the floor.

"Since I'm the Commanding Officer, and the ship doesn't leave until I get there what do you say to round 2?" asked Shepard, her biotic energy slowly flowing around her like a cloak.

"I'd love to but we really should get going," Kaidan said gently groping her ass as he headed towards the bathroom.

"Do you want me to join you?" asked Shepard.

"Yes, but we should really get leaving, so I'm going to say no." Replied Kaidan

**The Last Flight of SR1**

Shepard, and Kaidan arrived at the dock, to be greeted by Admiral Hackett, and Captain Anderson, and Councilor Udina.

"Shepard," they began, "We know the truth, but this mission is a hearts and minds mission."

"Thank you Sir!" Shepard stated before snapping off a salute. Kaidan followed her, by saluting as well, before disappearing into the Normandy's airlock.

Shepard turned left, while Kaidan went right.

"Joker, set a course for the Sarhibarek System, we are going to Omega." Commanded Shepard.

"Yes Ma'am." Joker replied, as he gently backed the Normandy out of her berth.

Three relay jumps later, the Normandy arrived in the Sarhibarik System.

"Joker, head towards the Amada System, its a short FTL jump, but be prepared to engage stealth systems upon arrival."

_Several days later_

Navigator Pressly voiced his opinion to Joker, "We're wasting our time. Four days searching up and down this sector and we haven't found any sign of Geth activity."

Joker turned to glance at the XO, before returning his attention to the displays in front of him. "Three ships went missing here in the past month. Something happened to them."

"My money's on slavers," Pressly retorted. "The Terminus System is crawling with them." The disgust was evident in his voice. Whether it was at the slavers or the inaction, Joker didn't know or care.

Any further debate was interrupted by the ensign. "Picking something up on the long range scanner," she announced. "LADAR paints it as a Collector Cruiser."

"Cruiser is changing course." she said, "Now on intercept trajectory."

Pressly looked at his own monitors, but couldn't believe his eyes. Double checking the ensign's findings, Pressly exclaimed, "Can't be, stealth systems are engaged. Why would the Collectors be intercepting us…"

His disbelief was interrupted however when Joker grimly stated, "The Reapers have new lackeys." Fingers flying across his screens, Joker yelled, "Brace for evasive maneuvers!"

Pressly wasted no time. Trusting Joker, he disengaged the stealth systems and immediately hit the commands to put the Normandy into red alert.

When Navigator Pressly placed the Normandy into Red Alert, it woke both Shepard, and Kaidan up. they both rolled out of her bed, and quickly donned their hardsuits. Shepard ran to the end of the ship amidst multiple explosions, and kaidan ran to check on Joker.

The Guardian lasers were doing minimal damage to the Collector Cruiser and just seemed to aggravate them as their relentless attack resumed. Throughout the ship, blow after blow was felt. Systems immediately overloaded as the attack tore its way through the Normandy. Alarms blared and crewmen were scrambling to contain the damage. In the bridge Pressly had only moments to read out the damage report before the console exploded. As he fell, his final thoughts drifted toward his last mission. Saren, geth, reapers, and how they defied the odds, time and time again. His final thoughts were toward the crew of the Normandy, human and alien alike. At the thought of the nonhuman members of the ship he couldn't help but think, _the Commander was right, they really weren't that bad. _

Joker desperately tried to maneuver his baby out of harm's way. His eyes flashed across different monitors trying to predict the enemy's attack, the damage Normandy sustained, and his ability to control. His ears heard the screams of the wounded and dying, every explosion that they were experiencing, and every command that was issued from dozens of different people.

He heard Pressly's scream of pain and hoped that he was all right. He heard the ensign's shout before her console exploded. Through it all, he continued to pilot Normandy as best as he could.

"Kinetic barriers down!" Joker shouted. The heat from the fire from the ensign's console grew behind him. "Multiple hull breaches! Weapons offline! Somebody get that fire out!"

As he looked back at the enemy cruiser's position, he knew that there was no way to avoid the next attack and braced himself for impact.

The Normandy flew as best as she could, but her pursuer continued to persist. Another shot from the enemy's main cannon struck the frigate on her main body. Fires erupted as oxygen from multiple breaches fed the flames, only to be extinguished moments later from the cold vacuum of space.

In one last act of defiance the Normandy entered the orbit nearby planet of Alchera and pushed around the planet to break the line of sight, using the planet as cover in an effort to get away from the enemy ship.

Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko sprinted through the second deck, moving past scrambling crewmen that were trying to deal with the fires and explosions. Kaidan wasted no time and tore his way through the mess of wires and debris. More explosions rocked the ship as screams of the injured and dying were muted through his helmet Kaidan ran toward the figure in the N7 armor. Standing tall and calm despite the chaos that erupted around her, Kaidan was once again reminded why, out of all the possible candidates, the Alliance chose Shepard to represent humanity. Her background and service record be damned, they were only footnotes compared to standing before the woman herself.

Her mirrored visor reflected the fires and explosions rocking the ship. Kaidan immediately pictured the calm, reassuring, and penetrating green eyes behind the mask.

"Distress beacon is ready for launch," Shepard said, turning toward him.

"Will the Alliance get here in time?" Kaidan asked.

Another explosion rocked the Normandy. Kaidan stumbled, and regained his balance. Another fire broke out near a console. None of the fire suppression systems kicked in.

"They damn well better!" Shepard said as she grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher to fight the blaze. "I'm not doing this so they can find our frozen corpses."

Kaidan grabbed another fire extinguisher and helped fight off the flames.

"Get everyone onto the escape pods!" She heard Shepard shout.

"Joker is still in the cockpit. He won't abandon ship!" Kaidan yelled.

He turned toward Shepard and saw her trying to get the fire suppression system working again.

"I'm not leaving either!" Kaidan declared.

The nearby console flashed to life. Shepard turned toward Kaidan and gripped his shoulders.

Looking into his visor hoping to see his eyes, Shepard said, "I need you to get the crew to the evac shuttles." Turning away, Shepard moved toward the console. "I'll take care of Joker."

Another explosion shook the deck. Regaining his balance, Kaidan tried desperately to get her words out. All he could say was, "Commander."

"Kaidan, go." Shepard turned to look at him one last time. "Now."

Kaidan stood frozen for a moment, only a moment, considering defying Shepard's order, but reason won and all's he could say was, "Aye, aye." Turning around he ran to get as many of the crew as he could.

Manipulating the console, Shepard finally activated the fire suppression system, giving everyone alive a chance to get past the blazes and into the escape pods. Once finished, she activated the one alarm every captain hopes they would never use. The evacuation alarm rang throughout the wounded frigate.

The Normandy VI rang out: "All hands abandon ship. All hands abandon ship. This is not a drill."

Having gathered as many people as he could find, Kaidan led the way to the nearest escape pod. Foam from the nozzles above made the way harder to run, but the fires were no longer a problem. Turning right at the next junction, she heard the VI telling everyone to abandon ship.

Stopping in front of the hatch of the escape pod, Kaidan barked out, "Everyone in! Go! Go! Go!"

Dr. Chakwas and other crew members sat in the seats at the rear as their training taught them, so as to make room for others as they came in. Kaidan saw one last crew member trying to reach the entrance of the pod before another explosion rang out and caught her, the explosion slamming her to the floor. Quickly hopping out of the shuttle he grabbed the shaken crew member, and led her into the shuttle, before climbing in himself. the doors closed. The hull of the Normandy opened, revealing six escape pods on her port stern. One by one they ejected, sending all the survivors of the Normandy toward the planet she was orbiting. The Normandy accelerated with what power she had left, limping away from the pods. With luck, the Normandy would be a better target for the enemy than small escape pods. Futilely using what thrusters remained, Joker continued to pilot the gravely injured Normandy further away from the defenseless escape shuttles. A trail of smoke and debris were drifting behind her.

Satisfied that the pods were ejected, Shepard turned away from the console. An explosion from her left nearly rocked her off her feet, but she regained his balance quickly. Looking at her HUD, the brunt of the explosion was caught by her kinetic barriers and were in the process of regenerating.

She ran down the length of the corridor avoiding what explosions she could and trusting her armor to protect her from the explosions that did get her.

She heard the shipboard speakers blare, "Mayday, mayday! This is SSV Normandy! We've suffered heavy damage from a Collector Cruiser!" Joker yelled.

As Shepard reached the stairs leading to the CIC, he heard Joker plead with the Normandy, "Come on baby, hold together, hold together."

Reaching the top of the stairs, the doors strained to open, so Shepard placed her hands in the gap between the doors and pulled, with no avail, so she pulled a grenade out from her belt and placed it in the gap. She ran down the stairs, and waited for the detonation. Suddenly the limited air rushed out into the vacuum of space. Shepard climbed back up the stairs and looked up, seeing the massive hole torn in the hull by the attack from the enemy weapon. She saw the planet they were orbiting and the debris that floated around them. Looking around, the power to the CIC was out, which meant mass effect fields were out, which meant no more artificial gravity. She activated her mag boots and slowly walked toward the bridge, pushing aside chairs that were dislodged from the explosions or attack. Shepard saw that a barrier was protecting Joker from the merciless elements of space. Passing through the barrier, Shepard felt gravity again, power was still on in the cockpit. _Normandy's still trying to protect us_. Looking down she saw Pressly and the ensign were dead.

Focusing on her goal Shepard ran up to Joker and grabbed his arm while shouting, "Come on Joker! We have to get out of here!"

Joker pulled his arm away. "No! I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!"

One quick glance at any working monitors told a different story to Shepard.

"The Normandy's lost. Going down with the ship won't change that."

Joker looked at his commander with despair in his eyes, fighting the truth that they were going to lose another member of the crew no matter what. Giving in, he nodded reluctantly.

"Yeah, okay. Help me up."

When nothing happened, he turned to Shepard. He saw her focused on one of the monitors and turned his head to see what was up. Beads of sweat started forming on his spine as he saw what Shepard was seeing voiced out what they both knew.

"They're coming around for another attack!"

The Collector Cruiser had finally caught up to the frigate. The Normandy was trapped with a planet below and the enemy above. The cruiser charged its main gun as it closed in for the kill.

A high pitched screeching sound caught Shepard's attention as she turned around and saw the particle beam cut through Normandy, as if they were trying to shear off the bridge from the rest of the ship. Knowing that time was running out she turned back toward Joker and threw finesse out the window.

Roughly grabbing his arm and ignoring his painful cries, "Watch the arm!"

Shepard picked up Joker and held him in her arms, the suit compensating for his body weight. She carried him to the evac shuttle designated the for the flight crew. Joker reached over to the panel and punched it. the doors slid open. Helping him in, Shepard was jarred by a nearby explosion, she dropped Jeff, and he screamed in agony, as the fall probably broke multiple bones. The explosion slammed her into the bulkhead, damaging the O2 lines exiting her suit to her helmet. Shepard started drifting away.

_Seconds later_

Shepards HUD began warning her of low O2. She fought to try and cap the lines with some medigel to capture some O2, but failed. Watching the gauge slowly drop to zero Shepard gave up.

"So this is what death feels like." Shepard said outloud. Her vision slowly receded into darkness, when a singular thought popped into her mind, what Matriarch Benezia said as she died on Noveria "No light, they always said there was a light."

Shepard continued to drift towards the planet, until the planets gravitational pull took over and drew her in. Thankfully her suit still had power, and its thermal shields activated as she began re-entry into the planet Alchera. Another good thing that happened was the lack of a thick atmosphere so the burn time was significantly reduced, however the fall from upper atmosphere to ground level was still a hazard. The body of Commander Shepard accelerated to 54m/s before impacting the ice planet below. This impact was reduced by the small eezo core powering the suit, which significantly lowered the weight of shepard before impact, as to reduce any possible brain injuries.

New Beginnings

_806 days after the vicious Collector attack on the Normandy SR1 above the frozen ruins of Alchera; currently aboard Lazarus Station, a Cerberus facility._

Pain. More than she had ever felt before in her life. Worse than the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime.

Shepard heard faint voices and forced her eyes open. It was so bright. Shepard squinted until her eyes had fully adjusted. A woman's voice... "On the monitor, look something's wrong."

_Wrong? Where am I? What's going on? _Shepard thought.

Now a strange male voice. "She's reacting to outside stimuli. Showing an awareness of her surroundings."

Shepard's eyes had adjusted to the bright lights around her, but the rest of her body seemed unresponsive. She tried wiggling her toes. Nothing. Now her fingers. Again nothing. Thinking she was paralyzed from the neck down put a chill down her spine. Turning her head, she heard the male voice speak again. "My God, Miranda. I think she's waking up."

Looking to her left, she saw a figure dressed in white with black sleeves. Everything was blurry, but long black hair was easily identified. Next to her was a short man with a shaved head and a neatly trimmed goatee staring at a computer monitor.

_Maybe I'm in a military hospital. Maybe they are trying to fix me. I wonder how long I've been out?_

The woman spoke again, with anger in her voice. "Damn it, Wilson! She's not ready yet. More Sedative!"

"Shepard – Don't try to move." The woman, _Miranda?_ tried to reassure her. Shepard could feel her heart pounding rapidly in her chest, her breath becoming faster. The man, _Wilson,_ spoke again, "Heart rate still climbing. Brain activity is off the charts." Shepard could hear alarms ringing. She fought through the anesthetic they'd administered, part of her special forces training to resist interrogation. _I want answers!_ Her mind yelled through the fog. Her voice came out as a squeal. Miranda moved around her to look closer at the monitors.

"Stats pushing into the red zone. It's not working!" Wilson exclaimed.

"Another dose. Now!" Miranda ordered.

Shepard felt her heart beating painfully fast, her shallow breath coming in fast bursts. She looked down past her feet to see Wilson fiddling with some equipment before the fog began to return. She tried to fight off this one too but it was too strong. Her heart slowed and her breathing became steady and deep.

"Heart rate dropping. Stats falling back into normal range." Wilson's voice droned. He sounded distant.

The world started becoming blurry; light began fading in and out. Shepard's head rolled to the right only to see a foggy Miranda fill her vision before it all went black.

"That was too close. We almost lost her," Wilson said in relief.

At his comment, her look became severe. Turning toward him, Miranda said, "I told you your estimates were off. Run the numbers again."

"Wake Up Commander."

Not dead yet. Nope. Still not dead.

"Wake up, Shepard. Now!"

Different time, but the same strange medical facility as before. Bright white medical lights shining all around. This does not feel right. Feel. Right? Something is wrong. I'm supposed to be dead. I got _spaced_. The Normandy blew up, I saw it explode. How am I not dead?

"Wake _the fuck_ UP Shepard!"

Shepard's vision slowly become less foggy, her brain taking in new information-it was like she was waking up from a deep sleep.

"Ugh," Shepard moaned.

"Shepard! Get up, this facility is under attack."

Shepard sat up, and a terrible migraine tore through her head. Shepard ran her hand over her head anticipating the feel of her silky raven-black hair. Running her hands down her the sides of her face she felt numerous cuts, and scars. She pulled off five leads, for what appeared to be an ECG machine, monitoring her vitals, and the IV needle stuck into her arm. The chill in the air finally got to her, as goose bumps formed on her arms and legs. Running her hands down her legs revealed numerous cuts, some bruising, and even a couple of intact stitches. She swung her legs over the bed, and gingerly placed her bare feet on the cold white floor, of the unknown medical facility.

"Shepard, there is an armory down the hall; you should be able to find a weapon, and some armor that fits you." Miranda said before an explosion cut her off.

Hopping off the bed, Shepard walked over to a storage room, and picked out a set of scrubs that fit. Now she wasn't wandering around in a gown. Shepard glanced over at the door. The holo-lock was engaged, so she mentally activated her omni-tool and began to hack the door open. With a beep, the holo-lock turned green indicating that it was now disengaged. Shepard pressed the panel, and the door slid open revealing a dead man on the floor. Shepard moved into a combat stance, and hit the next holo-lock panel, and peeked outside to see a pair of security guards engaging a heavy mech. One of them glanced toward the sound of the door opening. "Shepard, get to the research wing, we'll cover you." Yelled one of the guards.

"What about the armory?" Shepard asked.

"It's the first place the mech's hit, it's gone. But your grandfather's nano-vault is in the research wing, we haven't cracked the code for it yet, maybe you'll get it…

Was all he was able to say before auto cannon fire from the heavy mech penetrated his cover, and took off his head.

"Shepard, here's a knife, sneak behind the mech and take it down!" hollered Markus, the other security guard.

Shepard activated her tactical cloak, and the nano-crystals flowed from her omni-tools minifacturing plant, and covered her newly acquired scrubs, rendering her invisible, both from visible and thermal spectrum's. She snuck behind the mech and finished it off by severing the cooling lines to its reactor.

"Markus get clear, the mech is going nuclear!" Shepard yelled back.

Exiting the medical wing, Shepard and Markus came across a pair of scientists trapped under a fallen crate. Helping the scientists lift the crate off,, and in turn they helped her gain entry into the R & D wing, where they were ambushed by a squad of mech's. The unarmed scientists didn't stand a chance without Shepard, so they linked back up with her and Markus. The four intrepid members entered the secure area where the nano-vault was undergoing diagnostic tests, in order to open it. It seems that whoever these people were, they had a lot of resources at their disposal. Shepard approached the nano-vault, and a scanning laser projected its beam across her body. a computerized voice then asked 'quote?' Thinking back to what the one guard said she recalled that this is her grandfathers nano-vault. Shepard wracked her brain trying to remember her grandfather's favorite quote. She spoke into the air, hoping the vault would pick up the sound "Disce quasi semper victurus vive quasi cras moriturus.

'Voice print acknowledged. DNA lock still engaged, please provide a sample." The computerized voice stated.

Shepard placed her left pinky finger in the DNA scanner.

"DNA typing acknowledged, access to Nano-vault 1142154 granted." The computerized voice stated.

Miranda watched with benign amusement, as Shepard opened the Nano vault with such ease, and how being in Cerberus possession for nearly 25 years, Cerberus had not even been able to figure out the length of the code phrase.

Remembering what her grandfather said about these things, Shepard calmly reached out and touched the suit, hanging limply in the Nano-vault. Immediately tendrils of nano-machines began moving up her arm, and then across her back, to the rest of her body, all under her clothes. The symbiosis complete, Shepard grabbed the hardsuit component, and placed it on a nearby stainless table. Shepard laid down on the nearby table and the two scientists finished closing up the suit. Shepard sat up, and pulled the hood up. One of the scientists handed her a visor. Shepard clipped it on and alphanumerics started scrolling across the crimson lens in front of her eyes.

"Miranda, there is an unknown breach in the local network. They infiltrated our network in about a tenth of a second."

"What did they do?" asked Miranda.

"They used our network to infiltrate the Alliance personal database." Stated Raphael, an network tech.

"How did they get into the Alliances' Network through ours?" asked Miranda.

"Since our network is loosely based off their network, it was an easy hack, but nobody should know that we are that connected to them. And the funny thing is they were only in for about 2 minutes. Not enough to get anything condemning."

UNRECOGNIZED DNA PROFILE.

PLEASE INTERFACE WITH…

NEW DATA ACQUIRED.

WIRELESS NETWORK DETECTED

CONNECTING TO NETWORK…

WELCOME TO THE CERBERUS DEFENCE NETWORK.

SECURE PORTAL TO ALLIANCE MILITARY NETWORK DISCOVERED.

CONNECTION THROUGH SECURE PORTAL REQUIRED.

CONNECTING TO PORTAL…

PORTAL CONNECTION CONFIRMED.

WELCOME TO ALLIANCE MILITARY DATABASE

SECURE CONNECTION REQUIRED.

ESTABLISHING SECURE CONNECTION…

CONNECTING…

SECURE CONNECTION CONFIRMED.

DNA PROFILE RECOGNIZED.

DNA PROFILE ACCEPTED.

'Welcome, Lieutenant Commander Calista Ann Shepard, to the Crynet Systems nano-suit 2.0. All systems online. The N2 is functioning within normal parameters. There is a minor reconfiguration required, estimated to complete, 26 minutes. To minimized tissue damage the suit will lock down for the reconfiguration. Two hours, three minutes remaining until host repaired.'

_26 minutes later_

The suit beeped, and Shepard was able to move again.

'Hey AI dude, can I make you a woman? and give you a name? cause saying SECOND is a little long.'

'Yes, Commander, how is this... and while i was in the CDN I downloaded EDI.'

'Can you show me a map EDI?'

'Sure Commander' EDI responded.

"Let's Move!" Shepard yelled.

Shepard, Markus, and the two scientists began walking towards the guard barracks. Since the barracks was in the opposite direction of the shuttle bay, Wilson's hacked mechs had no need to be in that wing of the station. The intrepid squad arrived in the barracks, and immediately began ransacking the footlockers at the base of each cot. Every time they found a weapon, it was placed on a nearby table. A short while later, Shepard, and Markus approached the table. they had recovered six different assault rifles, a pair of sniper rifles, three shotguns, a matched pair of Vengeance SMG's and a arc projector. as for ammo, lets just say more than enough. The two scientists recovered a set of armor from the Edmonton Blood Dragons, and a set from the Montreal Veterans EUCC. they donned the armor, and fitted them to each other. Shepard walked over to the weapons table, and picked up both of the Vengeance SMG's, carefully looking over them. Particulatly around the foregrip mounts. She found what she was looking for, her initials, CAS.

"Markus! Who is guard number 007?" Demanded Shepard.

"Uh, I don't, I'm not..." Stammered Markus.

"So its you. Thank you for taking good care of my SMG's." Replied Shepard.

"What?" Asked Markus, suddenly confused.

"Yes, these matched Vengeance SMG's, they are mine. You guys must have recovered them with my body." Shepard said.

"How do you know that they are yours?" Asked Markus.

Shepard rotated the SMG's over, and showed Markus the etched initials, CAS, Calista Ann Shepard. She then placed both SMG's on her lower back, where the shotgun normally sat. She picked up a M-54 Harrier Heavy Rifle, an M-777 Anti-materiel precision rifle. she also grabbed as many thermal clips, and power cells that she could carry; with the nanosuit on, she could carry a lot. "What the fuck is a thermal clip?" Shepard swore.

'To answer your question, to allow longer periods of firing, the Geth invented a new heat management system, the thermal clip. Thermal clips are similar to bullets, except they can shoot more than they are. Once a thermal clip has absorbed as much heat as it can, the weapon will automatically eject the thermal clip, and load the next one up. Once the magazine is empty, simply eject, and insert a new one.' Replied EDI.

"Miranda, i was going over the data logs for the intrusion, and in two minutes in our network they grabbed EDI, and some other condemning files over 200 Terabytes. no computer on earth can transfer that much that fast. were talking transfer rates of more than 2 Tera's per second." replied Lucas, a engineer on Myrmidon Station.

"Shepard, you still alive?" asked Miranda.

"Hells yeah, a couple of mech's cant stop me!" Shepard shouted back.

"Where are you?" asked Miranda.

"I'm with a security guard named Markus, and a pair of scientists from the R &D wing. we took a short detour to the barracks to outfit and equip. Why?" Shepard asked.

"Why did you go to the barracks? I distinctively remember telling you to go to the armory." Miranda answered.

"Cause your stupid mech's blew the damn thing up. and i wasn't about to go hand to hand with a bunch of armed mechs. Now fuck off I'm busy." Shepard responded curtly.

"OK guys, according to this map through that door is the fastest way to the shuttle bay, unfortunately EDI informs me it is also the thickest in terms of enemies. Who doesn't recognize my authority?" asked Shepard.

Not one hand was raised. "OK move out,"came Shepard's commanding voice.

Shepard took point with her duel SMG's, the two armored engineers with their shotguns were behind her, and Markus took up the rear with the ARC projector.

'EDI, how many mechs will we be facing?' Asked Shepard

'Two YMIR mechs, 14 LOKI mechs, and 8 FENRIS mechs, oh an a hacked ATLAS mech.'

'Ok I know what the first three are, but what is an ATLAS mech?'

'It is 2x larger than a YMIR, and is normally controlled by a human soldier, the mech is largely automated, so the hack was relativly easy, for whoever hacked the mechs in the first place.'

'Can't you just rehack the mechs?' Asked Shepard.

'Unfortunatly no, whoever hacked the mechs in the first place overloaded the antennas, i could hack them if their antennas where intact, but since they aren't we are going to have to deactivate them the old fashioned way.' Replied EDI.

'And which way is that EDI?' Asked Shepard.

'With bullets.' Quipped EDI.

"Everybody equip disrupter ammo on their weapons. I have marked targets for all of you it should be on you HUD's.

Shepard switched out her duel SMG's for her M-777 Dragon anti-materiel precision rifle. She activated the disrupter ammo, and went prone before cloaking.

'EDI where do I aim to take out the ATLAS in one shot?'

'Aim for the point between it leg joints, and its torso pivot.' Replied EDI.

'So aim for its junk?'

EDI pondered the thought, while searching common human terms, before responding 'yes.'

Time seemed to slow for Shepard.

One of the scientists opened the door.

It slowly slid open.

Shepard took aim.

And fired.

The hyper-velocity round exited the barrel, crossing the distance in less than one-thousandth of a second. The high density of the round coupled with the phasic jacketing allowed the round to pass cleanly through its kinetic barriers, and its armor plating, before detonating, inside the reactor control centre of the ATLAS mech. Several hundreds of a second later, the mech blew taking out ninety percent of the hostiles. The remaining two FENRIS mechs were quickly dispatched by the shotgun wielding scientists.

They proceeded to cross the room, littered with mech parts and carbon residue from the explosion.

'EDI, are they any hostiles in this room?' Asked Shepard.

'Yes, but the head of security is currently engaged with...now zero mechs.' EDI answered.

Shepard hit the open panel.

The door behind him slid open with a hiss, and Jacob pivoted around while simultaneously erecting a biotic barrier, pistol at the ready.

"Who is there?" asked Jacob, a bead of sweat stated dribbling down his forehead.

"I said who is there? if nobody answers in the next 5 seconds, an incendiary grenade is coming your way."

"Hello, this is Commander Calista Shepard of the Systems Alliance Military. who are you?" Shepard asked with no hint of fear.

"Lieutenant Jacob Taylor, Head of Cerberus Security."

Shepard ran away from the door, and slid into cover, with an LOS on Jacob, Markus, and the scientists, dual Vengeance SMG's pointing at them all.

"If you are Cerberus, say now or die." Shepard hatefully asked.

"Yes, we are Cerberus, but its not what you think. we are not your enemy. In fact you wouldn't be alive without us.

"Keep talking! tell me the whole story or you die, right now, by my hand." Shepard spoke, her heart rate increasing.

"Shepard, can we get off this station soon, the mechs have located us, and there bringing a couple of YMIR mechs. the light armor we are all wearing , with the exception of you, won't stand a chance against that much firepower."

"No! Answer my goddamn question or I will end you." replied Shepard.

"So, over two years ago the Collectors ambushed and destroyed the Normandy SR1. you got knocked away from the last escaped pod by an explosion and were propelled towards the planet, Alchera. A Cerberus light cruiser was in hiding and watched the whole thing, after the Collectors exited the area, the cruiser went in, but it was too late. A shadow broker squad intercepted you on the planet. The cruiser tailed the shadow broker shuttle to omega, where a deal was underway between the collectors, and the shadow brokers men was underway. Unfortunatley for both of them, one of our agents Feron, and your collegue Dr. T'soni were waiting for them. After killing all of the parties, Dr. T'soni gave your body to Feron who shipped to our facilty here, Lazarus Station. We have been rebuilding your frozen, mangled body for two years. In about two weeks we were going to slowly taper off the anestia and let you naturally regain consiousness before integrating you back in to real life. But the mechs attacked, so far we haven't been able to figure out who started it. So Miranda switched the depressant off and exchanged it for a stimulant forcing you awake about two months early. Then when the mechs hit the armory, it was a blessing in disguise, because now you have a nano suit that can heal you even during combat.

"Hello, is anybody alive on this channel?"

"Wilson, this is Jacob." Shepard paid closer attention to the conversation after hearing Wilson's name. I'm here with Commander Shepard."

"Just keep moving toward the control room. Don't get pinned down. I'll see what I can do." Wilson stated.

"Roger that, Wilson. Stay on this frequency."

"I think I remember Wilson checking on me one time when I woke up." Shepard commented off-hand.

Jacob nodded. "That's him. He's the chief medical tech. Answers directly to Miranda. Come on, service tunnels are this way."

Noticing Shepard looking at him, Jacob nodded and moved passed all the pipes and toward the door. Just before reaching it, his radio crackled again.

"Oh God, they've found me! Help!"

"Wilson! Where are you?"

"Server room B! Hurry! They're outta control!"Jacob turned to Shepard. "Up those stairs, Shepard!" before turning and running toward the control room.

Another transmission came from Wilson, "they've shot me!"

'Shepard, Wilson hacked into security to try to kill you, he works for the Shadow Broker.' stated EDI.

'EDI, does anyone else have access to that information?' asked Shepard.

'Yes, Operative Lawson has access, but has not acted on it.' replied EDI

Shepard and company made their way to the server room's.

Upon arrival Shepard noticed, that yes Wilson had been shot, but there was no mech, or mech pieces anywhere. The anger began bubbling up in Shepard, she grabbed Wilson by the throat, thanks to the augmented armor. While lifting him up, EDI identified that Markus was slowly bringing his rifle to bear, Shepard's left hand snapped up, and fired a three round burst at his right leg, the first two hyper-velocity rounds were stopped by his kinetic barrier, but the last one got through, piercing his thigh armor and his leg. He cried out in pain, and dropped his rifle. The two scientists holstered their shotguns.

"Anybody else want to try something?" Shepard asked with rage in her voice. "Now Wilson did you or did you not hack the mech's?"

"I, I had no choice." grunted Wilson, while struggling to break free of her grip.

"Wrong answer, everybody has a choice." Shepard stated before bringing her SMG to bear, and shooting him between the eyes.

'EDI, run a sweep of the station, is there anyone else alive?' Shepard asked the AI.

'Shepard there are numerous hostiles, but only one other heat source, biometric scanning indicates that it is Operative Lawson.' EDI replied.

'Plot an intercept course, but make sure we have the tactical advantage.' Asked Shepard.

Several minutes later, Shepard, Jacob, and the two scientists, carrying the wounded Markus arrived in the loading bay, where guess what, they encountered more mech's.

'Shepard, Miranda is waiting in the shuttle bay, she is armed, stress levels indicate that she has hostile intent.' Stated EDI.

'EDI, hack into their network, and download and erase anything that has to do with this project, or me.'

Shepard brought up her omni-tool and proceeded to hack the door, when it abruptly opened, and Miranda was standing there, pistol drawn.

"Where is Wilson?" Miranda asked, her voice as ice.

Shepard immediately brought both of her SMG"S to bear. "Dead, I killed him, he hacked into the security, and brought the mech's onto your people because of me. Before I killed him he said that he didn't have a choice. I uncovered some credit transfers that explain why he didn't have a choice, but I'm afraid your not going to like them. This document shows money being transferred from one of the Shadow Broker's accounts to Wilson's account." Stated Shepard.

"We can discuss this later. now everybody, into the shuttle. we are leaving." said Miranda.

As the shuttle accelerated to FTL speeds, Shepard began perusing the documents that EDI gleaned from Cerberus' mainframes. Miranda eventually spoke up, getting her attention. "Before you meet with the Illusive Man, we need to ask a series of questions to evaluate your condition."

Jacob turned his head to face Miranda. "Come on, Miranda? More tests?" he protested. "Shepard took down those mechs without any trouble. That has to be good enough."

"It's been two years since the attack. The Illusive Man needs to know that Shepard's personality and memories are intact. Ask the questions," she ordered.

"Two years? I've been gone that long? Everybody I knew must believe that I'm dead. Oh god, Kaidan, I've really fucked up." Ranted Shepard.

"The sooner we start, the sooner we can be done," she countered. "Start with personal history."

Jacob sighed, but brought out his omni-tool to look for the relevant data. "Okay, records show you grew up in space living on one starship or another, until you enlisted at age 16. You graduated with honors, and your military designation was changed to N for Special Forces. You were stationed on Elysium and recieved multiple medals and the star of terra for fighting batarians during the Skyllian Blitz. Do you remember that?"

"There was no way i was letting those batarian bastards take out elysium. I had to win.

Miranda looked pleased while Jacob nodded. "However you want to put it, it was damned impressive. I had friends who were there." He turned to Miranda. "Satisfied?"

"Almost," Miranda said with an appraising look at Shepard. She almost sounded pleased. "Let's try something more recent. Virmire, where you destroyed Saren's cloning facility. You had to leave one of your people to die in the blast."

Noticing Shepard's darkening look, Jacob jumped in. "Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams was killed in action. It was your call. Why'd you leave her behind?"

Shepard took a deep breath and tried to remind herself that these people had saved her life. "I left a friend to die that day and I didn't do it casually, but I had to save as many people as I could. Ash gave her life for the rest of the team. Without her, I couldn't have stopped Saren. She died a hero."

Jacob nodded. "I understand, Commander, and we weren't judging your decision. Everybody at Cerberus knows that cloning facility had to be destroyed."

"Shepard, think back to the Citadel, after the Alliance saved the Destiny Ascension and killed Saren. What happened next?" Miranda questioned.

"Humanity was offered a spot on the council. I recommended Captain Anderson for the position," he answered.

Miranda smiled. "Yes, though Captain Anderson is now Councilor Anderson. From what I hear, he preferred life in the military."

"Still, it's nice to know the human council member is going to put defense and military prowess ahead of politics," Jacob added.

"Your memory seems solid, but there are other tests we really should run…"

"Come on Miranda. Enough with the quizzes. The memories are there and I could vouch for Shepard's combat skills personally."

Miranda nodded in acceptance. "I suppose you're right. We'll have to hope the Illusive Man accepts our little field test as evidence enough."

Shepard grew up on starships during her childhood, so she knew what negative acceleration felt like, and the shuttle was now reflecting those exact same characteristics, therefore she knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were coming into dock quite soon. several minutes later the Kodiak docked with an interior docking cradle on Myrmidon station. Shepard, Jacob, Miranda, and the two scientists exited the shuttle. The two scientists walked off in the direction of the medical wing, do to minor injuries sustained in the escape of Lazarus Station.

'Commander, our first stop is in the communications room, specifically the Quantum-Entanglement Communicator.' EDI stated to the Commander.

"Shepard, please disarm yourself, and place your weapons on this table, the Illusive Man will not see an armed soldier, especially not one with a history of violence towards our organization." Miranda announced as they passed through a set of doors labeled communications room.

"I don't think that I will comply with you, for several reasons, one being that I don't trust any of you, another for the fact that I'm not even meeting him face to face, we are using your QEC room." Shepard replied rather harshly.

"How do you..." Miranda began.

Shepard tapped her helmeted head, "Really smart cookie, wearing state-of-the-art nano-technology."

With that Shepard walked off towards the QEC room to have a chat with the leader of the shadowy organization known as Cerberus. Shepard unclipped the visor from the N2, and pulled the hood down. shortly thereafter, the laser transmission grid appeared to rise from the floor.

"Hello Calista. It is nice to finally meet you." Stated the hologram of the Illusive Man.

"From what I hear I cost you a fortune, with that money you could have trained and outfitted a regiment including armor and air support. Why me? Why did you bring me back to life? What do you have planned for me?" Asked Shepard rather acusingly.

"For starters you are a symbol of what humanity can accomplish. You were the first female N7. You also are the first human spectre. You convinced a turian and a krogan to work together with you. You also took down rogue spectre saren and his reaper flagship. Then humanity got a spot on the council. And do you know what the council did in return? They sent you to _clean up _geth incursions, not what i would have done to the savior of the galaxy. In fact humanity did more to locate you after you went mia than the alliance did. They also erected a memorial for you on elysium. I just wanted to capitalize on you. So i rebuilt you, and i commissioned a replacement ship for you and hired the best pilot in the galaxy to fly you around. The medical staff is top notch, as is engineering. But the sole reason i brought you back is because the reapers are back and the collectors seem to be working for them." Stated the Illusive man.

"I know that they are working for the Reapers, I knew about two years ago, Oh all powerful leader tell me something I don't know." Mocked Shepard.

"They are abducting colonies Shepard. Entire human colonies are disappearing. The Alliance has done nothing, they are blaming the attacks on pirates and slavers. But in all previous cases a distress beacon has gone off, and there is evidence of an assault, gun fire, burnt out buildings, dead bodies. But in the later incidents none of the signs of a pirate attack are present. Its like everybody just got up in the middle of dinner, and left." The Illusive man stated.

"I don't believe you, I have to see it myself." Replied Shepard, her anger towards Cerberus waning.

"I assumed as much, I gathered a couple of soldiers to go with you to Freedom's Progress, the latest colony to be hit." The Illusive man replied. "First you have Miranda Lawson, she is a skilled sentinel, and Jacob Taylor, who is a skilled vanguard, who do you want to take?" Asked The Illusive Man.

"I don't want any of your lackeys, in fact since you are so powerful, I want Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. , and Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, get me them, and I'll consider working _with_ you." Demanded Shepard.

"I guess two out of three ain't bad. Lieutenant Alenko is now Lieutenant Commander Alenko, in charge of his own Normandy Class Frigate; while Dr. Karin Chakwas, and Lieutenant Jeff 'joker' Moreau are in fact already employed by me. They are both assigned to the SR2, a variant of the Alliances Normandy Class Frigate. In fact here is someone you might recognize." Answered the Illusive man.

"Hey, look who it is." Came a voice from behind Shepard.

Shepard wheeled around to face Jeff.

"Jeff, how's it going?" Asked Shepard.

"Not so good, after the Collector attack, the SSV El Alamein intercepted all of the escape pods, but after a total head count, there are 20 crew members missing; but that is irrelevant. What is relevant is the Alliance grounded me, the only thing I could do in the Alliance was fly. So I put out feelers and got a response. A division of Cerberus, not that I knew that at the time, offered me a flying position ferrying cruisers, and frigates from there ship plant to various ports around the galaxy. I got paid very well. Well enough to get gene therapy, and cybernetic implants to give me full functionality. I went dancing! Anyways a little while ago, about a month ago I guess I was tasked with flight performance testing of a 'prototype deep penetration frigate'. Does that ring a bell?" Asked Jeff.

"I think that is how Admiral Hackett described the Normandy SR1, when I got my posting letter." Replied Shepard.

"Exactly, so when I received that task I jumped for joy, now at this point I still didn't no I was working for Cerberus, I was working for a shipbuilder. When I arrived at the dock, I couldn't believe my eyes, the ship I was tasked with ferrying looked identical to the SR1, except it was much larger, and it had twin v-stabs, instead of a t-tail. Oh and it can cloak." Stated Jeff.

"Cloak? As in the same thing I can do to remove myself from visual, and electronic scanning? How big is that drive core to generate a cloak field?" Asked Shepard.

"Over three times bigger, almost four. But regardless you know when the Normandy would activate its IES stealth system, and would use gravity wells to propel itself forward, well this frigate, actually it could be classified as a light or medium cruiser does the same thing only twice as fast. And getting back to the cruiser designation the reason why is because it has teeth! You know sovereigns main gun, or the collectors particle beam that sliced through the SR1, well this ship has one! Its called a thannix cannon, and UV guardian anti-ship lasers, Asari made silaris armor, and cyclonic field kinetic barrier generators." Jeff replied ecstatically.

"Whoa, slow down Jeff your going to give yourself a heart attack." Shepard stated.

The pair stopped in front of a blackened window. Jeff hit a button on the nearby console and floodlights snapped on one at a time slowly lighting up a space dock, where the SR2 sat.

"Its going to need a name." said Jeff.

"That it will." Replied Shepard.


End file.
